"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads." (Acts 26:14) "…I persecuted them (saints) even as far as foreign cities." (Acts 26:11) "And I persecuted this Way unto death, binding and delivering to prisons both men and women," (Acts 22:4) By looking at these verses, we can see the connection between persecuting Jesus, and persecuting the Saints. The persecuting “Me” is the persecution of believers. This is a Revelation we all need to see. It will truly revive our fellowship and change our living. This is the revelation that was the basis of Paul’s apostleship. To the Colossians he urges them to see that Christ is their life. He is in them as the hope of glory, and their understanding and experience of this produces the new man where Christ is the head and is all and in all. To practically experience this in our fellowship would be quite a transformation. It was quite a transformation for Saul or Paul to see this truth. Previously, he had tortured many believers before he was headed toward Damascus. Evidently his conscience was spoken to, but He kept kicking against the pricks of God, and he would not listen. So finally, God gets his attention to see this magnificent truth. Deep inside, all along he was pricked as God was speaking to him, and kicked at His speaking’s, but on the road to Damascus he stops kicking and sees Christ. This vision qualified him for his distinct apostleship, and his epistles unveil his ministry for all believers to see this identical vision of Christ and the church. If you see this truth that Paul saw as you go through Colossians you are going to come under a conviction in your consciousness as a believer. This conviction will be to live in the reality of what the church really is. To make this transition cost Paul everything. For you to live in the realm of this revelation, brother, sister will cost you, if you ignore it, you are likely kicking against the pricks. It is far too easy to just stay in the realm of our religious understanding of the church. But what the Lord requires is a living out of the church where he is everything to us until the new man is visible in our midst. May the Lord urge us, and may we respond: Amen Lord, whatever you want, whatever it takes for you to be all and in all. Here I am!